CIRCLE FORMS HIGH-TECH SUPPLY CHAIN ALLIANCE

CIRCLE FORMS HIGH-TECH SUPPLY CHAIN ALLIANCE    Circle International, the San Francisco-based forwarder being acquired by EGL Inc., has formed an alliance with two Singapore-based supply chain management companies to provide end-to-end logistics solutions for the high technology industry.
   Circle has teamed with a contract manufacturer, Omni Industries, and a logistics management company, Mentor Media. The three companies, under the name COM, said they will offer “single-source, turnkey manufacturing, assembly and delivery programs.” COM will be based in Singapore.
   Computer and electronics companies, led by Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems, are outsourcing more of their manufacturing and supply chain management operations to third-parties.
      Leveraging low labor and infrastructure costs, companies such as Omni and Mentor have set up offices and production plants in Asia to cater to the high-tech industry. Logistics has become an increasingly important part of the contract manufacturers’ value proposition to customers. In turn, they are looking for transport companies to take over logistics tasks. Circle operates a large logistics center in Singapore and runs 76 offices in 23 countries throughout the Asia Pacific region.
   “The collaboration between Circle, Omni and Mentor elevates the value that integrated logistics can bring to the high technology manufacturing sector,” said Zulkifli Baharudin, vice president of logistics for Circle’s Asia-Pacific region.
   “Companies no longer see outsourcing as just a money-saving exercise,” Zulkifli said. “Companies realize that outsourcing allows them to gain better and faster investment return, conserve expensive capital, and rationalize knowledge resources to maximize primary business needs and competencies.”